Just wondering. I mean, I'm on a gap year and working in woolies, studying at night class, blah blah, and I'm really not proud of this, but before I started working I tended to assume that intelligent people, i.e ones who'd stayed on at school and gained good grades were "better" than those who hadn't. I know, I used to be a bit of a n00b.
However, now I've done my obligatary stint of waitressing (HATED IT) and been working for a while now (I even have a name badge with my actual name on it) I feel differently. I respect people who go out and work and have to put up with odious pricks, day in, day out. I've developed an intense loathing of people who swank in wearing cerise missoni scarves (with "Missoni" diamante-d on the cashmere or whatever) and talk down to/patronise me, making the assumption that because I work in a shop and wear a uniform, I'm stupid, ill-educated, lower-class and therefore draw to the conclusion that I'm worth less than them. Gits. (although maybe I'm not the brightest spark justnow since I spent almost a minute scanning this to find the typing error, managed to realise that "conclusion" is L before U before I posted it). Because I do work hard (newbies get all the crap jobs) for my money...and for pretty crap pay. NO, QUIET, that's not the point. What I was TRYING to say, before I went off-track, was "Has this happened to anyone else?" Have you noticed more of a class-divide? Anything, really?

I had to mop up some toddlers piss by the pic and mix in my first month there. This woman just came up to me, "My little boy's had an accident" and walked off. I thought he'd fallen over or something, but lucky newbie me was the one sent up for the mop.

I've found a similar thing, without wishing to be patronising. Its a big shock to the customers who would come to my checkout if they asked where I was at uni...

Anyway, after the managers found out that I was actually fairly competant and actually put effort into the job I ended up being given some little responsibility. But they were still rubbish, basically glorified shelf stacking- I was in charge of Christmas for a couple of days, basically making sure the aisle with everything on was neat and fully stocked, moving stock from various promo displays around the store to balance it up, etc.

Anyway, yeah. I have a lot of respect and started to get on with a load of people really well, which was nice because I wouldn't normally have done that.

I work as a temp. I disrespect the people who do the low paid jobs even more than I did before, because I find the conversation is often low-brow, and the people make no effort to create opportunities for themselves. I hate the jobs, but moving around different companies and being able to watch the office politics, and see how different businesses work in different stages of their development quite interesting.

(Original post by Howard)
I am presently employed. As a matter of fact I've never had a day of being unemployed. Though I have plenty of experience being underemployed.

I've worked in a pub for 9/10 months, six/seven days/nights a week, which I s'pose is classed as being 'underemployed', given my background an all. But as 'menial' jobs go, working in a pub is defo one of the best IMO. The odd **** and weirdo, who piss you off, but it really isn't that bad. Snottiness surprisingly rare, given it was in Cambs. Nights are more enjoyable IMO. Not too boring, if you're working with OK people in a good pub, which I was. Having a routine and money in your own pocket aint bad also. But if you want a lot more, you'd be frustrated

I work in a shop, which i absolutely HATE, it is a constant reminder that university is the way forward. Unskilled work when you've got more intelligence is torture. And customers do my damn head in, as do managers, who only earna bout a pound an hour more, but think they're gods. I find enjoyment at work by patronising managers who are less clever than me, and letting snotty customers know that actually, i'm going to a prestigious uni, while you live off your husbands credit card.......

(Original post by cottonmouth)
And customers do my damn head in, as do managers, who only earna bout a pound an hour more, but think they're gods. I find enjoyment at work by... letting snotty customers know that actually, i'm going to a prestigious uni, while you live off your husbands credit card.......

ooh, I know! There's this one woman who comes in and patronises me while wearing a bright pink MISSONI scarf with the letters picked out in diamente (mmm..nice) and as for my manager- he's new, and a total b'stard. Really. He bloody talks down to me and is all nicey nice to the older women and buys them presents cause he's scared of them and got all shirty with me when I confronted him about the fact I haven't been paid the right amount:
"Oh, I'll only tell you once, I dont want to hear about you discussing this with anyone else. I'm doing you a favour..."
"No you're not. If you didn't pay me the right amount, I'd sue you. Did I mention I'm taking buisness law* at Uni?"
*that's a fib, but it worked

(Original post by cottonmouth)
I work in a shop, which i absolutely HATE, it is a constant reminder that university is the way forward. Unskilled work when you've got more intelligence is torture. And customers do my damn head in, as do managers, who only earna bout a pound an hour more, but think they're gods. I find enjoyment at work by patronising managers who are less clever than me, and letting snotty customers know that actually, i'm going to a prestigious uni, while you live off your husbands credit card.......

I worked as a christmas temp in a shop during my A-levels and I thought exactly the same.

I worked at a farmers' market for a few months before christmas, and it wasn't nearly as bad as everyone's experiences of shop work appear to have been. It might be because my bosses were quite nice, and worked on the stalls themselves, and also because the customers didn't generally talk down to us because they needed us to explain what all the food was.

Temping is boring as ****, though, unless the other people in the office are nice.